The Rescued
by NaginiFay
Summary: Orochimaru's adult daughter begins to train as a Konoha ninja, with Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura as her senseis. *I recently realized I'd made a mistake with the chapter uploads. So if it was confusing before, please give it a second chance!*
1. Rescue

I got the idea for this fic from a hilarious edit of a pic of Orochimaru, the one that makes him look like a woman. The idea of Orochimaru having a daughter and what she might be like stewed in my head for several months before I started typing. So here it is people.

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Hatake Kakashi looked across the dark cell. At first, he thought it was empty, and that all their effort to try and retrieve Orochimaru's failed combat experiment was wasted. Then Hyuga Neji pointed. "There." he said quietly.

"Alive?" Neji nodded. Kakashi lit a flare and walked carefully towards the far corner. Finally he could see it (Orochimaru's notes had made no mention of gender) curled in a fetal position on the floor. The others, Sakura, Choji, Guy and a masked ANBU member prepared for attack while Kakashi carefully reached out to shake its shoulder with his spare hand. He could hear nothing from it, not even the sound of breathing, and as he gripped its shoulder it seemed completely lifeless for several moments. Then suddenly it began to cough violently, gasping and fighting for breath as desperately as a drowning victim suddenly able to breathe again. It rose to hands and knees and began hacking up mucous gone gray with dust and age. It finally slumped against the wall and looked up at them through its black hair. Its eyes were yellow on black, demon eyes. Kakashi waited silently for it to speak or move. It did speak, extremely hoarse and hesitant.

"Light." was the first strangled word he understood. "Please, give me the light." Sakura lit another flare and Kakashi held his out. The creature took it with a shaking hand and held it close to its face. There was silence again for a moment. "Is Orochimaru dead yet?" it asked, staring him in the eye.

"Not quite" Kakashi said lightly. "We were wondering actually if you might be interested in helping us with that." It turned its eyes back to the light.

"Yes." It paused and looked at him again. "Bring me out to the sunlight and I will die for you, or for anyone you choose, so long as you oppose Orochimaru."

"Will you live for us, and submit to a seal to ensure your obedience to the Hokage?" It dropped its eyes, as if considering. "Live for you?"

Neji answered. "You will live the rest of your life as a slave to someone else's wishes, doing whatever you are asked to do under threat of the seal being activated." Kakashi could tell he still did not approve of the plan, and the deception, even for a being that might be completely demon, with no humanity left.

"I will do as you wish."

The creature showed no sign of pain as Kakashi performed the sealing technique. The blood from the Hokage he had brought with him had contrasted starkly with the creatures skin, which was as unnaturally white as Orochimaru's had been. The seal took the form of the Konoha leaf emblem on its forehead. Kakashi still had no idea whether it was male or female, neither its manner nor thin body covered with rotting rags gave away any clue. "You are called Scion, right?" It nodded. "Well then, let's get you out of here Scion." Kakashi figured it was about time they finished their raid. They had only a few hours left before Kabuto was due back from his trip. It would be obvious that they had stolen Scion, with all the empty cell doors cut off their hinges and all the research notes missing from the file cabinets. Information from the files would no doubt be useful in their struggle against the evil now led by Kabuto, but taking and sealing Scion had been their main objective.

Earlier raids on other facilities had yielded intriguing information about this one of Orochimaru's demon-human hybrid experiments. Orochimaru had hoped to minimize the humanity of the result, producing a more powerful soldier. Instead every subject of the altered process had died but one, and that single survivor could not have been termed a success. Orochimaru had written "Scions regenerative abilities are very interesting, but overall strength and chakra control are inferior. Scion completely lacks the ability to use ninja and mind control techniques. Attempts to train Scion in taijutsu have resulted in ten attempts to kill the instructor, most likely the result of mental instability. Scion is deemed ultimately useless as a host. Scion is occupied with domestic duties."

Scion walked unsteadily for the first few feet to the door, but was soon walking swiftly and confidently a few steps behind Kakashi. "Sir, have you disabled the exit trap?"

"Exit trap?"

"It was set only to trigger on a return trip from the cells. I do not know if it is still there or not." The team searched, and found a suspicious crack in the ceiling, but no concrete evidence of a trap. "Allow me to go first then, just in case." Kakashi nodded his approval of the idea. If there was no longer any trap, then there was no harm done. If there was a trap, they would have the opportunity to assess Scions ability. Scion walked forward towards the door and leapt aside as a heavy blade slipped through the crack. The blade was rusty, but still sharp enough to cut off Scions left arm midway between wrist and elbow. Black liquid flowed out immediately and chased the arm down, catching it before it hit the ground, then quickly pulling back up to rejoin the severed ends. The liquid disappeared in less than a minute and Scions arm was whole, the only sign of the injury a thin pink ring of blood. Kakashi took Scions arm and wiped off the blood with a thumb. There was not even a scar, or a scratch beneath it, and Scion seemed to have full use of the arm.

"That was amazing!" Sakura exclaimed. Scion shrugged, clearly unfazed by the injury. "It shouldn't have taken that long, I guess my chakra is getting low." They continued outside to where the second team, all ANBU, were waiting. Choji generously handed Scion one of the snacks he always carried.

"Food?" Choji nodded. "Arigato". Scion clearly had trouble swallowing, as its esophagus and stomach seemed to be in much the same condition as its lungs. Kakashi handed over his canteen.

"Drink as much of that as you think you can keep down for a while." Scion nodded and was able to finish the rice chips with the waters help. _It seems Scion suffered from starvation before the stasis that kept him or her alive kicked in_.. His suspicion was confirmed when Scion fainted about five minutes later, as they were preparing to leave. They had already planned to carry Scion if they succeeded, so they simply took turns carrying the demon hybrid.

They were nearing the border of the Rice Country when Scion finally woke up. Sakura was taking her turn at the time and Kakashi heard her talking to Scion. "When we camp we'll see what we can do about getting you washed up, okay? I've got an old dress with me you can wear until we get to Konoha if you like." "Hai. That would be really nice." _So Scion is a girl then. _As a medical ninja, Sakura would be able to tell. _I can stop thinking of her as an it now! _Sakura was true to her word and heated water for Scion to wash with that night. She looked much more human, with her hair washed, the dirt gone, and wearing Sakura's dress. She also looked a great deal like Orochimaru, with long black hair and the same long nose and unnaturally pale skin. She was only able to eat about a cup of broth with rice before she insisted that she couldn't possibly eat anymore.

"We really should stay here for another hour or so. Even if Kabuto is coming after us, he's at least 2 hours behind us, even assuming he's faster than we are. Scion badly needs the rest. Her chakra is being burned up as almost as fast as she can generate it just to keep her heartbeat and breathing going. Eating and sleeping are the only things she can afford to be doing right now so she can build up a reserve. She really is in much the same condition Gaara was when he was brought back to life." Sakura told him.

Kakashi considered. "In your opinion as a medical ninja, will moving out now kill her?" Sakura shook her head.

"It seems more like she would go back into that stasis coma, if she gets stressed enough. It looks like a natural defense, along with the regeneration."

"Then we go in 15 minutes. Tell the others." Sakura didn't move. Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow.

"She will need broth again in two hours. Plan to stop long enough for me to cook it." she said firmly.

"The leftovers?" he asked.

"She's going to be eating that in one hour."

"Very well." he agreed reluctantly. Sakura left to prepare to go. It wasn't that Kakashi didn't care about Scions condition, the girl was clearly not in as good of shape as she looked, but more that he knew they could not afford a confrontation with Kabuto or even one of his subordinates.

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A/N: Still no reviews! I am open to constructive criticism. Is it confusing? Are the paragraphs too long? Tell me!


	2. Orochimaru

Chapter summary: The team discuss Scion, Scion meets Naruto, and Sakura pummels Naruto. : P

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The team reported to Tsunade-sama as soon as they reached Konoha. The trip back had been uneventful, with Scion sleeping most of the time. They told the Hokage how Scion had practically come to life in front of them, then later reattached her arm.

"No human could have done that," Neji said. "I saw her demon chakra rejuvenate her nearly dead body."

"She was starved." Choji observed. "No one had opened that cell for months."

Kakashi agreed. "What about Scion as person? What is she like?" Tsunade asked.

"She is obsessed with light ,and afraid of the dark, not unusual for someone who's been shut up in the dark as much as she has." Sakura said, coming in from taking Scion to the hospital.

"I expected there would be some trauma from her time as one of his subjects." Tsunade replied calmly.

"Also," Kakashi added, "We've seen no evidence of it, but Orochimaru's notes indicate that she is mentally unstable."

Tsunade nodded thoughtfully. "It is unfortunate if that is true. Anything else?"

Sakura looked a little grim. "She looks like Orochimaru."

Tsunade's eyes widened. "She does?"

"Hai. A great deal like him." Kakashi confirmed.

"A DNA comparison might reveal whether she is his daughter, or whether he altered her with his DNA." The ANBU suggested.

Tsunade thought out loud. "She would be around thirty, if he fathered her before he changed himself and took a host body. I doubt he could have after that."

Sakura cut in. "When I told her the date and asked how old she was she said she thought she was about 27. She's been with him her whole life."

Guy shook his head sadly, tears spouting out of his eyes. "The poor young woman! We must befriend her and show her the meaning of family and friendship at once!" Normally Kakashi was somewhere between annoyed and amused by Guy's outbursts, but in this case he agreed with Guy. That was exactly what Scion needed.

When Kakashi next saw Scion she was sitting on the side of her hospital bed, looking out the window and absently brushing out her long hair. Naruto was guarding her, sitting cross legged on the chair by the door, watching her intently. She noticed him and greeted him politely. "Good morning Kakashi-sama."

"I heard you were feeling better and thought you might like a visitor."

"Guy-sama said the same thing." Scion noted. "Thank you for coming to see me. I like seeing lots of different people, and mostly I just see Sakura-sama and my guard."

"I don't imagine they talk much."

"No, especially the ones in the masks. And that boy with the yellow hair, he's hasn't even told me his name. He has just sat there and glared at me all day."

"Well that's rude, Naruto." Kakashi said pointedly.

"Fishcake?" Scion looked puzzled, the most animated he had seen her face. Naruto reddened. Kakashi chuckled.

"Why did you call me a fishcake?" Scion asked. Naruto stuck his lip out.

"No no," Kakashi waved his hands apologetically. "The boy's name is Naruto."

"Oh! So why won't that boy talk to me then?"

"I'm not a boy! I'm a man!" Naruto burst out. Kakashi smiled under his mask.

"You must be much older than you look then." Scion observed. Naruto didn't answer. "He's not talking again."

"So it would seem. Naruto, you really should talk to Scion while you are here."

"But Kakashi-sensei!"

"But what Naruto?"

"I don't trust her." Naruto grumbled quietly.

"Neither does anyone else," Scion pointed out coolly, "And they at least say hello and introduce themselves."

She turned to Kakashi. "Are you really his teacher?"

"I was awhile ago."

"Do you still get to punish him?"

Kakashi laughed. "I suppose I could get Jaraiya-sama to teach him some manners, but I don't think it would work very well."

Scion blinked. "You are probably right about that, if we are thinking of the same Jaraiya."

"Have you met Jariaya then?"

"No, Orochimaru would talk about him sometimes, that's all." She paused. "That's part of why nobody trusts me isn't it? That and being part demon?"

Kakashi wasn't sure how to answer. "It's mostly because you look like him." Naruto said, seeming to think this was worth saying.

"I look like who?"

"Orochimaru of course, did you think I meant Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto burst out. Scion pulled her IV nutrient drip out of her arm and walked quickly across the room to the mirror.

"Don't do that!" Kakashi said too late. Once there leaned in close over the sink, apparently very near sighted. Suddenly she screamed and started punching the mirror.

"NO NO NO NO!" Kakashi pushed the buzzer for the nurse, then grabbed Scion. Of course, her cuts from the broken glass healed instantly, but she still needed to be held back from hurting herself. At least in his opinion she did.

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**Sakura and an orderly arrived to find the mirror shattered and streaked with blood. Scion was crying into a slightly uncomfortable Kakashi Sensei, and Naruto was sitting on a chair, looking slightly ashamed of himself. Sakura instantly jumped to the most likely conclusion.**

**"NARUTO! You idiot, what did you do?!"**

**"Why don't you step out for a minute, Naruto, and tell Sakura what happened." Sakura could tell Kakashi-sensei was upset with Naruto. Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously.**

** "Ehehehe." he stammered. **

**"NOW, Naruto," Sakura said firmly, then grabbing him by the back of his collar and dragging him out the door. "Just a moment Kakashi-sensei." she said, bowing politely while Naruto halfheartedly tried to escape. She slammed the door room so hard dust fell off the ceiling. Sakura threw Naruto down against the wall and loomed over him.**

**"Explain Naruto." She said menacingly. Naruto gulped and started to sweat. Images of all the things Naruto could have done flashed through her head, and she unconsciously began pounding and grinding her fist against her palm.**

**Naruto put up his hands defensively, "Calm down Sakura-chan, it's not that bad, really!"**

**Sakura hphmed, but took a deep breath. "What did you do then?"**

**"All I did was say nobody trusts her because she looks like Orochimaru, that's all!"**

**"You're the most insensitive idiot on the face of the earth, Naruto!"**

**"Well, it's true! She does look just like him. I guess she didn't know but I still don't get why she was so upset about it."**

**Sakura sighed aggravated. "How would you feel if you had just found that Orochimaru was your father?"**

**Naruto looked confused. "What do you mean Sakura-chan?"**

**"You would be angry, right?"**

**"Well yeah, considering all the bad stuff he's done to us."**

**"Well, Scion just found out that Orochimaru is her father."**

**Naruto's confusion deepened. "I don't get it. What's the analo-whatsit?"**

**Sakura drooped. "There is no analogy! Orochimaru really is Scion's father!"**

**Naruto pondered this for a moment. "That's gross." Sakura could feel a tension headache building in her forehead. "I mean, he's this weird snake monster, right? You'd think it wouldn't even be possi--" Sakura snapped and punched the top of his head. "OW! Sakura-chan!" he whined.**

**"For your information, Naruto, he probably fathered her before he changed into the 'weird snake monster."**

**"So, she's old?"**

**"Shut up Naruto! If he didn't, then he probably took someone else's child and did genetic alteration to make Scion. Either way she's spent her whole life being experimented on by him and hating him, and you just told Scion Orochimaru is her father."**

**"I still don't trust her." Naruto said stubbornly. Sakura hit him again. Naruto whined again.**

**"Now go in and apologize!"**

**"Aww man..."**

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Review people. Any suggestions? Is the perspective change format working well? Does Naruto look too much like a wuss?


	3. Sharingan

Scion's Journal

The fox boy, Naruto came in and apologized to me. I could tell he was mostly doing it because he is scared of Sakura-sama. I didn't really care though. My mind didn't have much room left over. First, Orochimaru, as I had feared and suspected, was my father, in one way or another. Second, I had seen my reflection for the first time in years, and I did actually look just like him. I wasn't as hatefully ugly, but I did look like a monster, in some ways more than him. Third, and steadily gaining on the other was how nice it was to have someone holding me.

I found myself stopping my tears to concentrate on what it felt like. It was warm, and soft, two sensations I was without in my cell. Kakashi-sama also provided a much larger range of smells. Sweat, oil, smoke of some kind, and food, I think. I pressed my face closer. And dirt, definitely dirt. Kakashi-sama noticed me smelling him! He smiled. "Do I smell good then?"

My face felt hot. "Yes." I said quietly. Suddenly I was dizzy and I swayed on my feet. "Here," he said, "You should probably lie down and let the nurse put your IV back in. I nodded and reluctantly pulled away from him. How long will it be before someone holds me again? Having the IV put in presented a distraction from all the other things whirling through my head. It wasn't painful, but I had a hard time convincing my body that the small hole wasn't a wound my black ichor should seal up and heal.

Also I had the problem of healing my hands. The black ichor doesn't actually heal me at first, it flows out and imitates normal flesh to seal up a wound. Then, it pulls chakra to the area to gradually replace itself with real flesh. It will be a long time before all of my black ichor will be free, right now a lot of my body is made out of it. The replacement process goes a lot faster if I concentrate on it. I don't know how accurate the images in my mind are, but picturing the structure of a vein helps heal it faster, and I always just know what parts of me are black ichor, and which parts are more human.

I did not notice when Kakashi-sama left, or when they changed the mirror, or when Naruto-san sat back in the chair. My ability to concentrate was at its highest level, so when I was finished rejoining the layers of skin and muscle on my hands I moved on. I called for the nurse first, so that I could eat when I was done. I have slowly been accelerating the healing of random parts of my body. Eventually it would happen on its own, but that would take several months, and I can't grow or get stronger when the black ichor is dominating my body. I cannot imagine I am very much use to Hokage-sama and the others as I am. At the moment I am actually a burden. Sakura-sama said I should make my journal entries as detailed as I possibly can, so I will write what I did while I was healing myself.

After my hands I turned my focus to my liver, which was probably about 65 percent ichor before I started working on it today. After about a six percent improvement the real tissue was getting tired so I moved on. I wish there was not a limit on how much I could regenerate at a time. Maybe learning to control my chakra better will help? Next I worked on my three smallest toes on my left foot. I do not know what happened to them, but they were all black ichor when I woke up. Did it freeze in my cell and kill my toes? Did something eat them off my foot? Its hard work to replace something completely, because I have to draw the chakra and new cells from the edge, instead of having cells and chakra dispersed through the area.

I've only had to do it once before, when Orochimaru burned a hole in my leg. If I create a mesh of real flesh, it heals much faster than if I just work from the edge out, because it increases the area the regeneration that occurs without my control can effect. Once I strained my toes to their limit, I started working on my stomach. I made each patch of stomach muscle and lining bigger. Soon I will make lines between them, but I couldn't today because I got tired too soon. I stretched and saw that there had been a lot of coming and going while I was working. I yawned.

"Naruto-san, I need to eat now. Would you go get my food please?"

"Am I supposed to do that?" I nodded.

"My guard always brings my food in. I call for the nurse, then in a few minutes you go get it."

"So call then."

"I already did." I looked at the clock and squinted to see the hands position. "More than an hour ago.

" "Oh yeah, she came while you were asleep."

"I wasn't sleeping. Will you go see if they have food for me please?"

He grumbled but went to go check. My soup was cold, but I haven't gotten so used to eating normally that I'm picky about what it is I eat. "I'm going to sleep now, please be quiet."

"You just woke up!"

"I wasn't sleeping!" I repeated. I don't think he believed me.

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**Naruto did his best to avoid being assigned to watch Scion. It was just too hard being around someone who was so much like Orochimaru. Even though Orochimaru was mostly dead and gone, what he done to Sasuke was still affecting them all, Sasuke so much that he wouldn't even come home to Konoha. However, Scion had said she was ready to start training a couple of weeks ago, and the Hokage and Sakura had finally agreed. Kakashi had been assigned to begin her training today, and Sakura was in charge of monitoring her health, so naturally Naruto had been assigned to round out the group.**

**Naruto almost didn't recognize her. Scion had cut her hair really short, leaving just enough of her black hair to pull into two stubby ponytails at the back of her neck. She had a pair of goggles of a bit like Shino's strapped over her eyes, they weren't as dark though, and distorted the shape of her eyes a little. "What is she wearing those stupid goggles for?" he wondered out loud.**

**Scion was not happy to see him. She scowled. "So I can see farther than a foot in front of me, dimwit." Naruto was a bit taken aback. Scion seemed to have lost a lot of the timidity she had had earlier, and was no longer ignoring him completely. Naruto took stock of the other changes in her appearance. Instead of the hospital robes, she had on blue leggings that went all the way down to her ankles and pink socks covered her toes in her ninja sandals. On top, Scion was wearing a pink zip up jacket on top of a lighter pink turtle neck with long sleeves. She also had a blue pair of gloves covering her finger up to the second knuckle. What really made Naruto blink was the pink nail dye and lipgloss. Sakura ran over to Scion and started gushing. "Oh you look great! How many other outfits do you have?..." Naruto had to admit Scion did look a lot better, weird still, especially the black and yellow eyes, but better. Kakashi-sensei came up behind him. "Well that's a pleasant surprise."**

**"Yeah," Naruto said grudgingly. "She did clean up okay. She's freakishly skinny though." Kakashi started laughing softly and Naruto turned back around. Sakura and Scion had stopped talking about girl stuff and were both glaring at him. "Naruto-san, as soon as I learn how I'm going to beat you up." Scion said seriously.**

**"Like that's ever going to happen." Naruto said dismissively. Scion's eyes gleamed dangerously and Naruto felt a chill down his spine.**

**"We will see."**

* * *

Kakashi had them all sit down and started with trying to assess Scion's knowledge and abilities, as Sakura had told him Scion had been deliberately failing Orochimaru's tests. "Can you control your chakra at all?" Scion nodded. He was pleased. "What can you do?"

"Well, I can direct it to an injury, or use to control my black ichor, or break off pieces of things with it."

Kakashi put up a hand. "Explain the first one to me. What's black ichor, first?" Scion cocked her head, clearly not sure how to explain. Then, she spread her thumb and first finger out, and bit down hard between them with the corner of her mouth. There was a trace of blood at first, but soon the black fluid he had seen when her arm was severed came trickling out of her hand. It wrapped snakelike around her fingers. Kakashi noticed that Naruto looked slightly green.

"This stuff," she said, taking her hand out of her mouth. The black ichor continued to flow around her hand.

"You shouldn't just hurt yourself like that, Scion-chan!" Sakura scolded. Scion was clearly perplexed.

"Why? Ninja's use their blood for summoning and sealing all the time don't they? And anyway, it's not like its going to take more than a couple minutes to fix."

"Hurting yourself can cause damage up here." Kakashi tapped his head. Clearly Scion was going to need a lot of help supplementing whatever Orochimaru had taught her. Scion looked dubious.

"Biting my hand is going to damage my brain?"

"Ah well not exactly." Kakashi made a mental note to have Sakura explain if the subject came up again. "So once the black ichor leaves your body you can move it?" Scion nodded, and demonstrated. She even shaped it into a tiny lifelike snake, which she caused to strike at Naruto's face. Naruto yelled and fell backwards to avoid it. She smiled widely and laughed.

"That's pretty precise control, if there is chakra all through that." Sakura commented after they stopped laughing at an embarrassed Naruto.

"Yes, it just pools or stretches out straight to catch bits of me when I leave it alone. It's been ages since I had the spare black ichor and chakra to play around with." Hearing that didn't surprise him, he doubted she had had much leisure and time to train at all.

"Can you pull that back in quickly?"

She nodded, "As long as I leave a hole for it." She demonstrated. That has some potential for developing her own techniques. He had her crumble the edges off of a pebble. It was a pretty common skill, one of the basic indicators that a person had the ability to become a ninja. He had Naruto and Sakura drill Scion in basic exercises to build up her muscle mass and strength while he contemplated the course her training should take.

He knew that in structure it must be very like the chakra strings that puppeteers used. Unfortunately, there was no one in Konoha who specialized in that kind of technique. Perhaps they could send her to the Sand, or bring someone here? With training she might switch over to the less visible pure chakra strings and be a good puppeteer. It was clear she had the precise control needed. The only barrier might be distance. Some people simply couldn't mold chakra far enough away from their bodies. There would be plenty of time to test her current limits while they did her basic training. Looks like Orochimaru may have been wrong about her stability. _Although, it's possible it simply hasn't been triggered yet. _Kakashi mused.

So far in manner she seemed very young, more like Tenten's age than nearly as old as he was. Scion also appeared to be far more comfortable with Sakura than with Naruto. She clearly resented the manner she had learned of her resemblance to Orochimaru, though Naruto seemed to have moved from distrust to more of a general dislike. Sakura called a halt to the simple drills a little while after Kakashi noticed that Scion was flagging. He waved them back over to sit again. Scion clearly needed a good long rest, she was sweating and her muscles were trembling slightly. Instead of pushing her further, he quizzed her to get a general idea of the knowledge she possessed.

He knew Sakura had given her a journal to write in so it stood to reason that she could read. She could do double digit multiplication and division in her head, but beyond that her knowledge was patchy. She had been astonished to hear that the world was a planet orbiting a sun. It seemed the lab books she had gleaned most of her vocabulary from hadn't touched much on the mundane.

Conversely, she knew the names of several members of Akatsuki, and of many forbidden techniques. Scion also recited the names and special abilities of several of Konaha's prominent ninja clans.

"What about Uchiha?" Scion tensed, and Kakashi knew immediately he had touched on a dangerous topic. "Well?" he prompted gently.

"Cruelty," Scion snarled, breathing hard. Sakura gasped and Naruto was completely startled.

"What do you mean cruelty?" he shouted, jumping to his feet. Scion looked up at Naruto, and Kakashi saw her face was twisted with hatred. She spoke intensely.

"Not even Orochimaru was ever as cruel as Itachi and Sasuke from the Uchiha clan."

"Liar, you take that back about Sasuke, demon mongrel!" Scion made a harsh sound.

" A strange thing for one demon mongrel to say to another, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto flinched. "Should it matter that I have no scars as proof, when you know my flesh does not scar, no matter how many times it is cut? Should it matter that I should have screamed my throat raw a thousand times until my voice was gone? You know what sort of monster Uchiha Itachi is, why does it surprise you to hear such things of his brother?" Naruto stood with his fists clenched, trembling with the strength of his emotion. Kakashi watched on edge, ready to intervene the moment it was necessary

"Sasuke is my friend!"

"You call such a person your friend still?"

"Always!" Suddenly Scion screamed with rage and launched herself at Naruto. She was faster than Kakashi had anticipated, and she struck an instant before he grabbed her, snatching the long ties of Naruto's head protector, yanking his head back and down, then biting Naruto's neck. Kakashi pulled her off and pinned her to the ground before she had a change to grind in. She screamed again, and then hissed, and Kakashi saw her mouth was suddenly fanged and her pupils slitted like a snakes beneath her goggles.

The transformation startled him just enough to allow Scion to shift underneath him and sink her fangs into his arm. The force she exerted with her jaws was incredible and Kakashi grunted in pain. "Are you alright, Sensei?" Sakura cried from behind him, where he was sure she was healing the gouges on Naruto neck.

"So long as she's not venomous," he said lightly. It would be no good to simply pull her off, unless worst came to worst, and he was sure that would break either her jaw or his arm. He was contemplating using the painful pressure point at the hinge of the jaw to persuade her to let go when suddenly she did it off her own accord and let her head fall back. An oily grey liquid dripped from her fangs and Kakashi realized numbness was spreading up his arm.

"Looks like she is venomous, after all." he remarked. Sakura abandoned Naruto and rushed to him. Scion's eyes had lost their focus and she was completely limp beneath him. Kakashi was sure she was not fully conscious. Naruto came over and swore when he saw Kakashi's arm. "Tie her to the tree there, Naruto. I'm not sure she'll be calm when she comes out of it".

Naruto complied, and none too gently, he noticed. Sakura struggled in vain to close the wounds on his arm and the numbness continued to spread. "We need to take you up to the hospital and mix an antidote, Kakashi-sensei."

Scion lifted up her head a little. "Is not gonna work." she slurred, blinking and shaking her head slightly. "Is not just poison, xacty. I gotta take it oud." She shuddered violently.

"I'm not letting you anywhere near Kakashi sensei!" Naruto said firmly. Scion's muscles spasmed, hitting her head against the trunk of the tree.

Scion's eyes teared. "He'll prolly die then." She shuddered again. "I went all crazy and snaky right?"

"You did." Kakashi confirmed.

She pulled her head up to look at him. "I'm sorry, it wasn't you." she jerked again, breathing hard, her eye's still slightly unfocused, but round pupiled again. "I mean, I thought you were someone else." She was still trembling, but she did not jerk again. "Please, let me help!" Tears sloshed against the lenses of her goggles. Realizing that she must have had a flashback, Kakashi cut her loose with his good arm and she slumped for a moment, then crawled closer, pushing Sakura aside. She clumsily put her hand in her mouth and bit much harder than she had earlier for her demonstration. The ichor flowed out until it covered her hand like a glove, then she grasped his arm, directly over the wound. The feeling was returning to his arm, and with it, the pain from the deep bite, when the Hokage arrived.

"I felt the curse seal activate, what's going on?"

* * *

Soooo...what do you wonderful people think? I'm worried that the Journal segment for Scion might not be working well. Should I change it to live perspective?


	4. Oops

Scion'sJournal

It should have been a good morning, but it was not. It started good, Sakura-sama and Kakashi-sama who was my sensei for the day liked my clothes. But then Naruto-san said I looked like a freak. I know that I can never completely hide my resemblance to Orochimaru, but after all the effort I spent on improving my appearance, it really hurt. He really makes me angry. He is so much like me, with being a demon hybrid too, but he constantly treats me with for more suspicion than anyone else in Konoha does. I do not know why he continues to be so hostile. I do not like him either. On top of everything else, he makes my eyes and head hurt, which is why I may have been rude to him earlier today. Perhaps it is because the no-tails and the nine-tails loathe each other so much?

Anyway, it's hard for me to know how to behave. I think I am picking up being respectful, but I do not know how to appropriately express dislike. My previous social experiences are completely useless here. Sakura-sama and Kakashi sensei were very upset when I bit my hand to let my black ichor out. How could I explain that it really was nothing to me? I am not immune to pain, but in the past I have received injuries that were worse without noticing that I had been hurt. And, as I said, self injury is necessary for many ninja techniques. I was ashamed that I had to stop the exercises Kakashi-sensei gave me so quickly. I am supposed to be strong, and Hokage-sama and the others expect me to be strong. I am weaker now than when Orochimaru judged me to be useless to him. How can I possibly be useful to these kind people?

But that was not all of the shameful morning. Seeing that I could not continue, Kakashi-sama kindly asked me questions instead of dismissing me. I was horrified to discover how ignorant I am. It seems Itachi did not teach me very much of use. It is good at least that I can read and write, so I can learn on my own. Then I very foolishly started an argument with Naruto-san about the Uchihas. He cannot know what they are like as well as I do, yet he insisted that I was lying and that Sasuke is his friend. That was when I lost my temper. How can even someone as annoying as Naruto call a boy like that friend?

I only mean to strike his face, but Naruto is so much taller than I am. I saw his stupid looking ribbons and pulled him down so I could reach him better and my Snake started coming out. I still am not sure why I bit Naruto-san instead of hitting him. Is my demon nature the reason? It just doesn't make sense that I bit him. It made sense to bite Kakashi-sama, with my arms pinned, believing him to be Itachi. I cannot have been in my right mind to think that though. Kakashi-sama is nothing like Itachi, he does not use genjutsu to torture me, he has not beaten me, or taunted me, and he certainly does not have those foul sharingan, though I could have sworn I saw them just before he pinned me to the ground. As it turns out the eye Kakashi-sama keeps covered actually is a Sharingan.

So then I thought he was Itachi, like the last time he came, holding me down so he could pound my face until my skull broke and the black ichor could not keep up, and laughing when I finally cried. "So, this time," I thought, "I will bite him and prove I am strong." But when I woke up from the curse seal, I saw that there was no Itachi, and Kakashi-sama's arm was badly hurt, and even though it has never happened before, I knew my snake fangs had put poison from me inside of him. I could see it in my mind, the way I see my black ichor and my chakra. In fact, it was mostly made from them, and they were blocking and then destroying Kakashi-sama nerves! There was a terrible pain in my head left from the curse seal knocking me out, and it was so hard to talk and to move. I could tell that what Sakura-sama was doing was not helping Kakashi-sama very much. He let me loose from the tree I was tied to, and I did my best to take back control of my chakra and ichor. I

was nearly finished when Hokage-sama came. I could feel how angry and disappointed she was and the pain in my head doubled. She asked what happened, but before anyone said anything she slapped me and I flew back against the tree really hard. So hard that my neck broke. I didn't have a lot of chakra left after pulling my poison out of Kakashi-sama, so it took much longer for my ichor to move to my neck and patch it back together. The curse seal burned so bad that I could not hear or see what was going on, and of course with my neck broken I could not talk.

* * *

**Sakura eyes widened in horror when she heard the awful cracking sound, and she became seriously concerned when Scion did not move from where she fell. Her master moved immediately to heal Kakashi-sensei's wound, so Sakura checked on Scion. **_**High pulse rate, clammy skin, rapid, shallow breathing, low chakra, and her neck isn't healing. This isn't good.**_

__**"Tsunade-sama, is the curse seal still activated?" **

**"It'll last awhile yet, so that I can control her. She obviously doesn't accept her situation. That or she's insane. I was hoping she could be trusted." **

**"I still think she can be," Kakashi-sama said. "We just need to make sure the events of this morning aren't repeated."**

** "Tsunade-sama, her neck is still broken." **

**Her master looked surprised. "Oh? It should not have broken. And any injury certainly should have healed by now."**

** Sakura shook her head. "She's barely started to heal, I think her chakra must be dangerously low. The curse seal has to be making things worse. We don't know what kind of long lasting damage this could do to her!"**

** "Tcht. Alright," Tsunade-sama said, "Tell me what happened, Kakashi." **

**The strain on Scion's body eased up immediately, and Sakura wondered just exactly how the curse seal was meant to control Scion. With pain? It would certainly explain her reaction. **

**"It looked bad you know, with your blood all over her face, and your arm bitten that badly."**

* * *

Kakashi flexed his arm, testing how well it had healed. Some of the immediate bite area was still numb. "Neuro toxin, I think," he commented. "I've lost a little of the feeling right here." he said, tapping the area and observed the change in sensation. Tsunade frowned. "Not bad, considering how nasty that poison was. If Scion hadn't insisted on drawing it out herself I'd be in pretty bad shape right now."

"She may have helped, but it is still her fault you were hurt." Tsunade said pointedly.

"Yeah!" Naruto burst out, speaking for the first time since his argument. "She completely freaked out on us! She's dangerous!"

Kakashi shook his head. "Most people who have been through the kind of things Scion has are dangerous from time to time in the wrong circumstances. This was really my fault. I should have stopped this."

Tsunade looked like she was about to disagree, then she stopped. "Explain." she ordered.

"Scion said that Uchihas were cruel, and that both Itachi and Sasuke had tortured her, that they were worse than Orochimaru. Of course, Naruto said she was lying."

"I see."Tsunade said darkly.

"Well, she is!" Naruto insisted.

"Quiet, Naruto." Tsunade ordered. Kakashi saw that Sakura was staring at her knees with clenched hands, and Kakashi realized that she probably believed Scion.

"I could see that they were both very angry and I should have ended the argument, but I didn't. Scion eventually attacked Naruto, and I restrained her. She became very snakelike and bit me. She certainly did not appear to be in her right mind, and afterwards she said she thought I was someone else."

"Flashback." Tsunade said.

"Yes, it makes the most sense," Kakashi replied. He turned his head and saw that Scion was stirring where she lay facedown. Her hands twitching first, then her head, and her feet last. She sat up abruptly and shakily removed her goggles and drew her arm across her eyes. and put them back on. Her breathing was ragged and he could see her pulse beating furiously just above her collar. Her pale skin was also beaded with sweat and her muscles trembled. Naruto scowled and leaned over her. "What's with you and biting people!?"

Scion swallowed. "I...I don't know why I bit you, Naruto-san. I just meant to hit you." she paused and looked away from Naruto. "Are you alright, Kakashi-sa--" she broke off staring at him wide eyed, then suddenly got to her feet, staggered a few feet away and began throwing up violently.

"Scion-chan, what's," he broke off, realizing what the answer to his question was. He swore and pulled his forehead protector back over his eye. "Two guesses who she thought I was," he said grimly.

"I don't get it." Naruto complained. Scion finished heaving and Kakashi could see her trying to calm herself before she turned back to face them.

"I'm sorry," she said, "its just...sharingan..."

"You don't need to apologize for being shocked, Scion-chan. I wish I could have warned you."

She nodded and sighed. She gave a soft laugh. "I'm not as crazy as I might be then, to have thought you were Itachi." she lightly. He could tell it was taking all of her self control to maintain her composure. "Hokage-sama, I am very concerned about my elevated demon form emerging." she said, speaking reluctantly. "It has never happened when I was angry before, only when I was afraid."

"You were not afraid?" Tsunade asked.

Scion shook her head. "Not until I thought that Kakashi-sama was Itachi, and even then I mostly angry. I can't control when it happens, and I can't control what I do! I would never have hurt Kakashi-sama, and I would never have bitten Naruto-san!" her voice cracked, and Kakashi saw that Naruto's hostility had melted away.

* * *

Still no reviews? Its like a record...but not a good one. sob


	5. Sasuke

Last chapter: Scion freaked out. This chapter: we learn why she hates Sasuke so much. Warning: Serious Sasuke bashing ahead. I have him doing some seriously bad stuff here, and later on everyone will discover he wasn't entirely in his right mind at the time. If anybody needs reassured, feel free to review. :D

* * *

Naruto felt a rush of empathy. Whatever she might have said about Sasuke, this he could believe and understand. Who was he to judge someone for losing control of the demon inside of them? He saw Tsunade-sama tell Kakashi-sensei to take it easy the next few days, then speak (briefly) to Scion, then turn to leave. She stopped and spoke without turning around. "Naruto, make your peace with Scion about Sasuke, that's an order," then she left.

Naruto was annoyed, he sat back down, filling in the circle that the four of them had inadvertently reformed. Scion sighed and asked Sakura if she had anything to dig with. "I can smell my vomit still," she explained. Sakura handed her a kunai, and Scion scrapped a small amount of dirt over the mess then came back, sat down and leaned against the tree, eyes closed, tapping the kunai against her leg.

"So, are you going to apologize?" Naruto asked cautiously.

"Not really." Scion said simply. "I am sorry I lost my temper, but as for what else I said, no."

"Why?" Naruto burst out. "Why are you insisting something like that is true when it can't be?"

Scion tensed. "I just don't understand." she said pensively. "I mean how many times has that guy tried to kill you? Hasn't he betrayed Konoha? Didn't he ally himself with Orochimaru and voluntarily transform into a demon hybrid? Shouldn't you hate him by now? Why are you fooling yourself about what he is, about the kinds of things he does?"

Naruto didn't know how to explain. "I can see why you wouldn't understand, Scion-chan." Sakura said softly. "Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, and myself were a ninja team for a long time. While we worked together we became more than comrades...we were..a family. We don't hate Sasuke, we love him like our brother."

Naruto nodded his head in agreement. Sakura had put it perfectly. He glanced at Kakashi-sensei, who was sitting silent and thoughtful, absently rubbing his forearm where Scion had bitten him. Scion shook her head. "I can't understand why you would still love him. I don't want you to be angry with me, but am I supposed to just say I was lying so you will feel better? Just tell you what I think you want to hear, like I've always done?" Scion sounded confused.

"No Scion," Kakashi-sensei said gently. "We just want to understand what happened."

"I can't just...how do I say..." Scion looked panicked.

"Why don't we just start with yes and no questions?" "

I think I can do that."

"Hmm, was Sasuke the one who put you in that cell?"

"Yes!" Scion said firmly.

"Was he the one who took care of you?" Scion cocked her head.

"What do you mean?"

"Made sure you had food, for instance."

Scion snorted. "He was supposed to."

"Why Sasuke?"

"Orochimaru said he needed a pet so he wouldn't be lonely when Orochimaru wasn't there, and to learn responsibility." Scion said a little dully.

Naruto was furious. "What does Orochimaru think people are?!"

"Toys and pets, obviously." Scion said scathingly.

"Did Sasuke hit you?" Kakashi-sensei continued.

"Yes."

"Did he cut you?"

"Yes." Sakura flinched and Naruto made a noise of protest. Kakashi-sensei raised a hand to cut him off.

"Did he yell at you?"

Scion hesitated. "He never really raised his voice but he would rant at me for being so stupid and useless and ugly."

"Did he ever torture you?" "Yes, until he got bored with it, I guess."

"How long did that take?"

Scion shrugged. "A month before it wasn't very often? Not like Itachi, but then for him it was...practice, with his sharingan. With Sasuke it was like I was a convenient substitute for someone else. It was frightening how different he was..." Scion looked relaxed, sleepy even.

_Probably worn out_, Naruto thought distractedly. He did not like what Scion was saying, but it certainly didn't seem like she was lying. He rubbed his forehead in frustration. _Could Sasuke have refused to come home because he couldn't forgive himself for the things he's done? It can't really be because he just doesn't want to. I can also see him being embarrassed that he hasn't killed Itachi yet. But why torture Scion? What has that got to do with him training to kill Itachi? Convincing Orochimaru he was bad? Convincing himself?_

"What was he like the rest of time?" Kakashi-sensei's voice was still soft.

"Mean. Whether he was avoiding people or seeking them out, he was nasty all the time."

"Now, that I can believe." Naruto commented. "Sasuke can be a real jerk."

"Then why on earth...? Never mind. I'm just going to have to accept that, from where I'm standing at least, you are all crazy when it comes to Uchiha Sasuke."

"That may very well work." Kakashi-sensei said. "What about you Naruto?"

He thought hard. "That she doesn't know what's going on with him because she's a little crazy from being with Orochimaru?"

Scion snorted and sat up straight. "Sure I know, he hates Itachi so much its unhinged him. That's pretty obvious even if I am crazy!"

Naruto opened his mouth to protest that Sasuke wasn't crazy then stopped and thought about it for a while, his face deeply thoughtful. " You know," he said finally, "that's probably true."

Sakura suddenly giggled. "So that's it? We just agree that we're all insane and stop arguing?" Kakashi-sensei put his hands up.

"Sounds like a plan to me." he said amusedly. Scion started laughing hysterically. Naruto resisted for a couple of minutes, but eventually he was laughing too.

* * *

"You two go on, I'd like to stay here with Scion for a bit longer." Kakashi said. Sakura and Naruto said goodbye and left. Kakashi just watched Scion for a while. She was lying on her stomach, feet against the trunk of the tree, with her elbows in the dirt, idly rolling crushed grass between her fingers. She looked peaceful. "How are you feeling?"

"Weird."

"Oh?"

"Well, this morning really should have left me feeling horrible right? But I don't feel horrible, I feel good, in a weird way. I can't remember feeling this particular way before, ever."

"What, happy?"

Scion laughed. "No, I've been happy before, I've even had people to laugh with before. I don't know what's so different." She dropped the grass and stuck a green finger in her mouth, appearing to contemplate its flavor.

"People to laugh with?" Kakashi asked casually.

"You know, friends. We had to be careful in case one of us was a rat, but Orochimaru had lots of slaves, and there were usually a couple I got along with okay."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"Did you think I'd spent my whole life in a lab or a cell?"

"Well..."

"You did, didn't you! Do I really seem that messed up?"

"Well, it has been hard to tell, especially since you're usually so quiet, and the results of your psychology test were so strange they were really useless."

"Psychology test? When did somebody do that?"

"The inkblots, do you remember?"

"Oh that." Scion rolled her eyes and giggled. "That was really boring. I mean how many times did I have to say it looked like a bug? Or a bowl of lumpy noodles? Or a pile of poo? Everyone in a while it'd be a really ugly face or something, but it was mostly bugs. The guy showing me the pictures seemed really annoyed and kept asking what kind of bug, and all I could say was "The kind that looks like that picture!" because I couldn't remember what their names are!" She giggled again. "I almost felt sorry for him."_ Well that pretty much explains that_. Kakashi mused.

He moved on to a topic Tsunade-sama had told to him to ask about if he ever got the opportunity." "Did you have a boyfriend or a lover then, among your friends?"

Scion shook her head emphatically. "Ugh, no! What if I had gotten pregnant? Orochimaru does horrible things to babies! The only girls who had them usually didn't want to, if you know what I mean?"

Kakashi did indeed know what she meant. "Orochimaru did suggest to a few that they try it with me, but none of them ever did. I'm lucky to be so ugly." she said matter of factly. "Of course with Itachi that had nothing to do with it, and for Kabuto it might not have."

"Oh?"

Scion inexplicably giggled. "Weeeel...Kabuto doesn't seem to like girls, and far as that goes it doesn't matter if Itachi does or not."

"Oh? How is that?" Kakashi asked curiously. "I heard he was a little overzealous in making sure he didn't have any descendents," she replied, miming a pair of scissors with one hand. Kakashi winced.

"You asked," Scion pointed out.

"Hehe, you're right. I did." he said ruefully, laughing_. Well its good to know she hasn't been sexually abused. _He thought to himself. _Tsunade will be glad to hear it._

"How is your arm, Kakashi-sama?"

"Oh its alright, a little numb in the center of the bite."

"I really am sorry," Scion said anxiously, "And I tore your jacket too!"

"I'm fine." Kakashi said firmly. "Think of it as a training accident, and don't argue with Naruto again," he added.

"Not arguing with Naruto-san is going to be hard, if I'm going to see a lot of him."

"Oh?"

"He bothers me, especially how he smells of fox demon."

"He does?"

"Hmm, smells probably isn't the right word, but I think its my nose that told me..." She scrunched her face up in thought. She lay there silently, and her face slowly acquired the strangest expression. "Kakashi-sama" she said after a long while, "Do you...have a dog?"

"Nani?" Kakashi, said, startled. He had been expecting something important, maybe personal, but definitely something more serious than "Do you have a dog."

"No actually," he replied, "I don't have a dog. Why do you ask?"

"You smell like one." Kakashi wasn't sure whether to be offended or not, but decided just to chalk it up to Scion being more than a little strange. She rolled over and propped her legs against the tree, and looked up at the sky. He facerwas peaceful, almost serene.

"I think I figured it out," she announced.

"Figured what out?"

"You know, the weird feeling."

"Go on then, how do you feel?"

"I think I feel..." Scion hesitated and tilted her head back to look at him. "Safe. I mean, I mess up really bad and this is all that happens?" She looked back up at the sky. "Konoha is some place special, you know?"

"Yes, I know it." He smiled. "Is there anything that could make it more special?"

"What do you mean?" "Is there anything you want? Other than for Naruto and I to take baths that is."

Scion gasped and rolled to her knees. "I didn't mean you smelled bad Kakashi-sama! You smell really nice!" she blushed, clearly embarrassed.

Kakashi chuckled. "Just answer the question." he gestured encouragingly.

"Well...I am getting awfully tired of living in the hospital and being guarded all the time, but I doubt Hokage-sama will want to let me out on my own after today."

"I'll ask her," Kakashi promised. "Anything else you want?" Scion suddenly looked sad.

"I'd like to learn anything I can about my mother. I'm sure she's long dead, but even knowing what her name was would be nice." Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'll look and see if we have any information on her, and I'll keep an eye out for any opportunities to get more." "Arigato, Kakashi-sama."

* * *

So, Scion's first day of ninja training is finally over. Next chapter: Scion shops in preparation for her first mission and gets hit on.


	6. Getting Ready to Go

Scion's Diary

Hokage-sama gave permission for me to move out of the hospital this morning! Also, she more than doubled the money I am allowed to spend each month! This is good because the apartment she chose for me doesn't have anything in it, not even a bed! There are so many things I need to get, a bed, a refrigerator, a hot plate, things to clean with...I think I had better get the cheapest things I can find or I will have to wait forever to get everything. Sakura-sama was busy this morning, so she could not help me move my stuff from the hospital, but she is coming to help me shop.

Later

Naruto-san is my next door neighbor! Hokage-sama wanted me somewhere one of the fully trained ninjas she trusts could keep an eye on me, and Naruto-san was the only person who wouldn't have had to move to be next to me! I am worried that this is going to be awkward, especially if he keeps on answering the door in his underwear! And I can't just not go over there, because I have to share his fridge! After all the little things I needed like basic food, toilet paper and a toothbrush and bowls and stuff, I had just enough money left over to buy a mattress and some blankets. No bedstead, no chairs, no table, and NO refrigerator.

Its way better than the hospital though, and as long as I stick to the schedule of teachers Hokage-sama has arranged for me, I won't be followed around anymore. It was nice to fix my own supper tonight, even if it was just rice and canned vegetables. The hot plate is so much easier to cook on than a woodstove or a gas flame. I don't have to keep moving the pan around so the food doesn't burn!

Scion yawned and put her journal down. It was definitely time to sleep. She showered, carefully avoiding scratching the tender area at the base of her neck. She wasn't sure why, but that spot had always been sensitive. She dried off, pulled on her warm fuzzy pajamas and sat back on her bed. Scion stretched carefully, she hadn't trained today, and didn't want her muscles to get too lazy.

She lay down, looking critically at herself in the medium level light. Sakura had suggested she get a bedside lamp, as leaving the regular lights on all night might bother her neighbors. "I need breasts," she decided. "Only perverts my age are going to notice me like this, and I have certainly had enough of creepy men!" She curled up close to the head of the bed near the lamp and fell asleep quickly, her last thought, "I wonder if I can grow some on purpose..."

* * *

A few months later.....

Naruto woke a few minutes before his alarm to hear knocking at the door. Scratching his scalp, he walked straight to the door and pulled it open. "Good morning Scion-san."

Scion stared at him wide-eyed. "Good morning," she said awkwardly.

"Milk again, right?" He walked around the corner and grabbed it, then walked back and handed Scion a carton.

"Yes, thank you. Wait, this isn't my milk, Naruto-san."

"Huh, really? Well neither one was opened yet, so I figured it didn't matter."

Scion shook her head. "My carton expires next week, this one expired yesterday."

Scion was still staring at him when he came back. "Here you go."

"Arigato." She paused at the doorway, "Naruto-san, will you always...answer the door in your... underwear?"

"Nani?" He looked down at his boxers. "Well, yeah, I guess." He added defensively. "Is there something wrong with that?"

Scion cocked her head and considered. "No," she said. "I guess I'm just not used to it. Thank you for keeping my milk cold."

"No problem, Scion-san."

Naruto showered and dressed so he could go up to the headquarters to see if there were any missions for him. Scion never came back with the rest of her milk, and she didn't answer when he knocked so he shrugged and left. It was unusually warm for fall. "Well, she better not blame me if her milk curdles in this heat." he said to himself. Scion was sitting off to the side cross legged on the floor in Tsunade's office.

"Hey," he advised Scion, "You should put your milk back in my fridge before it turns clumpy, Scion-san."

"My milk?" Scion looked confused. "I drank it all though."

"Wow, you must have to pee a lot!" Scion looked horrified, and slowly turned red.

"Naruto, don't bother Scion," the Hokage said firmly.

"But she drank half a gallon of milk for breakfast!" He turned back to Scion who was getting up off the floor. "How can you even fit that much in your skinny body?" he peered at her, hoping to see signs of a bulging stomach. Scion backed away nervously and Naruto prodded her abdomen. "That was all you had for breakfast, right?"

"No, I had fruit and a roll too."

"You're kidding!" he poked her some more.

"Stop it Naruto!" Scion sounded angry, but Naruto missed it. He put his hands around her waist and squeezed. "Hmmm..." Suddenly Scion slapped him.

"Let go you hyperactive jerk!"

"YAHOWWW!" Naruto rubbed his stinging face. "What was that for?" he whined. "I just wanted to see where you put all that food!"

"You don't get to just grab me! I might look like a kid, but I'm not!"

* * *

S**cion was suddenly horrified, she'd hit Naruto in front of the Hokage! She turned away from Naruto and bowed.**

**"I'm so sorry Hokage-sama!"**

**The Hokage laughed and waved a hand. "Don't worry about it Scion, I get the urge to slap him myself quite often." Scion couldn't help smiling.**

**"Hey, old woman, that's not fair!" Naruto burst out. "I was just curious, that's all."**

**"_Its a good thing you're a fox then and not a cat..." _Scion snickered to herself.**

**"Hey, snake girl, what's so funny?"**

**"Woman." Scion corrected. "Snake-woman, Naruto-san." She said impatiently, rolling her eyes. This was just a great way to start out her first mission. Naruto ignored her.**

**"So, do you have any missions for me, Granny?"_ Granny!? _**

**"Yes, actually. A small village is having problems with vandalism. They need a team to put a stop to it before the repair and cleanup costs get any higher." Scion was thrilled. _Sounds way better than pulling weeds and catching cats like Kakashi-sama told me I'd be starting out doing! _**

**Naruto's eye's bulged absurdly. "Nani-dattebayo!? That's a rookie mission! There's no way I'm doing that!"**

**"Not even as team leader?" The Hokage asked slyly.**

**"Say what?" Naruto sputtered.**

**"Well, you are a chunin now, aren't you Naruto? Isn't being qualified for command the whole point in achieving chunin rank?"**

**Naruto suddenly looked more enthusiastic. "Hehehe, so who are the little twerps I get to boss around for the mission?"**

**"I am not a little twerp!!" Scion burst. "For crying out loud Naruto-san, don't you have any manners at all?"**

**Naruto looked confused. "Wait, you're coming?" he asked Scion.**

**"Yes, of course I'm coming! Why else would I be in the Hokage's office?"**

**"But you're not even a genin! You haven't gone to the Academy or anything!" Naruto exclaimed.**

**The Hokage explained. "Scion is a special case. The fastest way for her to train at her age is by taking on small missions, and then correcting the weaknesses that come out as a result."_Yeah, because if I spend the usual ten years at the Academy, I'll be almost too old for this by the time I finish! _**

**"She still can't pull her own weight as a team member." _We'll see about that Naruto-san_! "How are we supposed to get anything done if I have to spend all my time babysitting someone who isn't even a genin?" _Babysitting!? __Who's almost old enough to be whose mother here? _**

**"That's why I've chosen a jounin as the third member of your team." Hokage-sama said patiently.**

**"Haha! Who's the poor sucker you got to do that?" There was a sudden popping sound and wisp of smoke.**

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* * *

  
**

"Good morning!" Kakashi said cheerfully. "Sorry I'm late. An old lady..." he was about to offer one of his usual spurious excuses when Scion-chan suddenly began laughing. Naruto had the oddest look on his face as well. "Nani? What's so funny?"

Tsunade-sama chuckled. "Oh, Naruto is just a little uncomfortable about giving orders to his sensei, that's all."

Kakashi smelled a lie, but let it go. "Well, Naruto, I'll happily give my advice when you ask for it, but this is your mission."

"Right," Naruto muttered. "So, where's this village, Granny?" Kakashi smiled under his mask as a vein stood out on Tsunade's forehead. She clearly found Naruto irritating, but at the same time she just as clearly had a huge soft spot for him." Kakashi already knew all the mission details so he watched Scion instead. She was slightly flushed as if she'd been angry or embarrassed recently, and she watched and listened to Tsunade intently.

"Okay," Naruto said as soon as she was finished. "Normally I'd say we could get there by tomorrow afternoon, but there's no telling how much you're going to slow us down, Scion-chan, so we better plan on a least four days." Scion visibly tensed, but she nodded. "Bring plenty of food okay, but light stuff. If your pack is too heavy, that will make you slower than extra stopping to look for food." Kakashi was impressed by Naruto's judgment.

"Is it colder where we are going?" Scion asked abruptly.

"Well, the village is partway up the side of a huge mountain, so it probably is, yeah. The hot springs make up for it though!"

Scion shook her head. "If its colder I'm going to need some warmer clothes, Naruto-san, and I don't have any."

Naruto scowled. "Well, hurry up and go buy some then."

Scion gestured helplessly. "I would Naruto-san, but I don't have enough money."

"Hmm," Naruto said thoughtfully. "What do you think, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Clothes could probably be considered equipment and come out of our mission budget, assuming we have one of course. Don't you think so, Tsunade-sama?"

"Hmph, I suppose so." Tsunade said reluctantly. "I should have remembered Scion wasn't properly outfitted yet. Why don't you help Scion get everything she still needs, Kakashi, and have them send me the bill?" Kakashi nodded and chuckled to himself._ Alright, she's going to flip when she sees the bill!_

_

* * *

  
_

"Come on Scion-chan," Kakashi said enthusiastically, pushing Scion through the door of the shop. "Grab all the clothes you like and then try them on." Scion looked completly overwhelmed. "Hey, Naruto, why don't you go see if Sakura is busy, I bet she'll be a lot more help than us." Naruto's glum expression brightened.

"OK" he said, practically running out of the store.

"Hey Naruto," he teased when Naruto returned, hiding behind Sakura, "What's the matter, scared of a little shopping?"

"No," Naruto groused, "I just hate it, me and every other STRAIGHT guy in the world," he added pointedly.

"Hey, what are you implying?" Kakashi asked, pulling Naruto's backwards by his forehead protector ties.

"All I'm saying is, you read smutty books all the time, I've never seen you with a girl, AND you seem to enjoy picking out clothes, that's all."

"No no, Naruto, observe more closely. When female skill is needed a wise ninja always pretends he knows what he is doing, and then brings in an expert."

He suddenly released Naruto, who over balanced himself. "Ah AHH ah! " *Thump* (Naruto falls down)._ I hope he leaves the subject of my lovelife, or rather the lack of, alone. _"That's why I sent you to go get Sakura."

Naruto rubbed his backside. "Heh, and I guess Scion didn't have time to pick anything out to show while I was gone getting her."

"Wrong." Kakashi said sternly. "Scion chose some socks and a sweater."

"Socks huh. Well I guess that wasn't too hard on you. Did she try on a bunch of sweaters already?"

"No, just the one. It was green. I said that I thought the pink one was better."

Naruto was puzzled. "Was it?"

"It's just a sweater! How am I supposed to know?" Kakashi whispered.

Naruto pulled a disapproving face. "So you lied, Kaka-sensei."

Kakashi waved his hands. "No no, Naruto, I said that the one she liked better was the better one."

"Eh, how did you know that, dattebayo?" Naruto exclaimed. Kakashi sighed dramatically.

"I think even you ought to have figured out what Scion's favorite color is by now, Naruto."

Naruto was non-plussed. "Why should I know something like that about her? We're not exactly buddies you know!"

Kakashi-sensei drooped. "Naruto, everyone in Konoha that's even seen Scion one time could make an educated guess at her favorite color is!"

"Nani, dattebayo?"

"Because almost all her clothes are pink!" Kakashi burst out. Naruto and Kakashi suddenly realized that Sakura and Scion were staring at them.

"What because almost all my clothes are pink?"

"Heh heh, we were just saying that its probably your favorite color, that's all."

"Oh." Scion shrugged and she and Sakura went back to discussing the relative merits of the bra each was holding.

Naruto blushed crimson. "Hey, don't do something like that in front of us. Its not decent!"

"Oh, how's that?" Scion asked seriously.

"That's women's underwear! Men aren't supposed to see them!"

Scion grinned."Well, for starters I'd like to know how that's worse than me seeing your underwear with you in it, and second, I only see one man here, and he doesn't seem bothered." _Only one man? Huh? Wait a minute! _

"Again with the boy thing! I'm a man Dattebayo!" Naruto swore, waving his arms frantically. "Why can't you give me the respect I deserve!? I'm in charge of this mission! You should be bowing and calling me Naruto-sempai at least! Taijo wouldn't hurt either!"

"I don't give away my respect. You can earn it, but I'm not just handing it over for free anymore."

Suddenly Sai popped out of behind a display case. "Domo Naruto-kun, what's the noise about?"

"Ah! Sai-san! Tell Scion-san here how you are supposed to respect your commander!"

"Oh, who's her commanding officer?"

"I am," Naruto raged. "And that freaky snake girl keeps being rude to me!"

"Oh," Sai said kindly, blushing bright pink as he stared at Scion. "I can see how such a lovely lady would have trouble respecting a loser like you, Naruto." _Oh my. Sai has a crush. This could be interesting_. Kakashi thought, grinning under his mask. "Don't worry," Sai said to the stunned Scion, "You'll eventually get used to dealing with this idiot."

"Nani, dattebayo!" Naruto shrieked, collapsing on the floor. "That's not what you're supposed to say!" Sai stayed and occasionally offered his opinion about the quality and aesthetics of the clothes. It was obvious he was smitten.

"How are you for weapons and equipment?" Kakashi asked. "I don't have any." Scion said blandly. _What on earth is Tsunade thinking?_

"How have you been training then?"

"My tutors bring things for me to borrow."

Kakashi shook his head. "You can only learn so much with borrowed tools. What have you practiced with so far?"

"Kunai mostly, but for throwing my aim isn't any good yet."

Naruto laughed. "Yeah, I saw her, she throws like a girl!"

"What was that, Naruto?" Sakura said threateningly.

"Hehehe, uh, nothing, Sakura-chan. OwW!!!" Naruto sat up off the floor and visibly sulked. Kakashi and Sai were by now well used to the brief violent interchanges between Sakura and Naruto, but Scion looked apprehensive, as if she expected a brawl to break out. "Anything else?"

"Not really. Most of everything else is bookwork and memorization."

"Any jutsu?"

Scion shook her head. "No, I'm still working on forming hand seals correctly."

"Good grief Scion, no wonder Kakashi is the third team member!"

"Hey, hey, Naruto, Scion's doing quite well for someone who just started," Kakashi corrected.

"Yes," Sai said, "I heard from Guy-sama that Scion's at least fourth academy year level in taijutsu."

"Bahaha." Naruto laughed. "I passed that level when I was ten!"

"Oi, Naruto, you started when you were four, right?" Scion asked, grinning.

"Yeah, so what?"

"So, I learned in four months what took you six years."

Naruto looked stunned. "Buu buu bb but..." he stammered.

"She has you there, Naruto." Kakashi added, chuckling. _Although it doesn't quite work that way, it does Naruto good to be humbled once in a while...like, every hour or so._ Kakashi smiled broadly.

"We should make a list of all the things you still need, Scion-chan," Sakura said brightly, still smiling at Naruto's dumbfounded expression. "You have a pack, right?"

"Hai, I got it because I don't always have time to get all the way home between lessons for lunch."

"Yeah, and you eat alot."

"I'm growing," Scion explained. "I doubt I'll be getting much taller, but I'm putting on alot of muscle."

"Well, you might think so, but the rest of us can't tell." Naruto said, clearly wanting to continue bickering with Scion. Scion only shrugged. _She's getting more mature as well, though you'd still never guess she's only a few years younger than I am._

"Mmm, right" Sakura said, pulling out a pad of paper. "So, soldier pills, kunai, med kit, cooking gear, dried food, plant guide, and some kind of weapon you don't need special training to use effectively. What do you think, Kakashi?"

"I know a lot of edible plants already," Scion cut in.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, once in a while we'd get a chance to trade work and I'd go foraging instead of washing dishes and cooking. Even after there was the Sound village, Orochimaru never thought much of farming, so it was pretty much buy, steal, or pick it ourselves." Scion started to look overwhelmed as the pile of new purchases grew.

"That'll do I think," Kakashi stated, "Now we just need to go to the amoury." Scion was clearly relieved they were about to make their last stop, and tried hard to avoid speaking to Sai without being rude. Thankfully the group was able to cross the village quickly, without stopping too add more things to Scion's bags. _This is taking forever, at this rate we won't get far today._

* * *

"Hmm," Kakashi-sama said, as Scion looked helplessly at the vast selection of weapons. _How on earth do I pick something?_ "Guy might have a good idea of the right class of weapon for you at least."

"That would definetly help alot." Scion replied. "Sai-kun, would you mind looking for Guy-sensei?" Sai smiled creepily.

"Not at all Scion-chan!" he said, and disapeared. Scion sighed, relieved to have him gone. _Good riddance._

"Haha!" Naruto laughed. "Sai was totally hitting on you, Scion-san!"

"I noticed." Scion said dryly, and blushing. "I don't know what I'm going to do about it either." she said quietly to Sakura while Naruto dropped a mace on his foot. (YAH! OWW!)

"Well what did you do before?" Sakura asked.

"Threatened to claw them open if they didn't leave me alone." Scion said bluntly. "And if they didn't listen, I did."

"Oh dear." Sakura shook her head, smiling. "That's probably not the appropriate response here."

"No kidding." Scion said.

"Hey!" Naruto said, "That's my catchphrase."

Scion looked at him coldly. "You can't own part of the language, Naruto."

"But I'm the only person in Konoha who says Dattebayo!"

"Not anymore." Scion said irritably. "How do you think I should tell him?" she asked Sakura.

"Well, are you sure you don't want to go out with him at all? It might be fun."

Scion pulled a face. "Fun doing what, comparing our tans?" Sakura giggled, and Scion heard Kakashi snort.

"Anyway, is he even 18?"

"Oh, not for a few months actually. (A/N: I have no idea how old Sai is so I made it up.)

"Good." Scion said firmly. "Then I don't have to worry about it for awhile. I can just say I don't date minors. Actually, maybe I should just say he's way too much younger than me to start out with."

"Oohh, that's right," Naruto said. "I forgot you were so old."

Scion frowned. "I'm not old! I'm just older than you are!"

"HAHA! Old snakey girl!" Naruto taunted her. She ignored him, so he turned his ADHD'ness on someone else. "Hey, if Scion's old Kakashi must be ancient! His hair is even grey already."

"My hair was this color when I was born Naruto," Kakashi said mildly. "And I think the shop owner would appreciate it if you were a little quieter." _Yeah, the rest of us too. Oh rats, Sai is back._

"Guy-sama is coming." Sai said and beamed disturbingly at her. _Gross, he reminds me of Kabuto...blech. Why is it always the wierdos?_

* * *

Scion looked extremely uncomfortable as she made light conversation with Sai. _I know Sai seems pretty wierd, but this is a little odd. Why is she bothered by his crush so much?_ Kakashi wondered. Scion was obviously releived when Guy arrived and Sai had to leave.

"Congratulatons on your first mission, Scion-chan!" Guy said exuberantly and hugged her.

"AH! Umm, thank you, Guy-sensei." Kakashi chuckled at the expression on Scion's face as she was lifted up off the floor.

"Now lets see, you're still leaning heavily on taijutsu in combat so definetly a handheld close range melee weapon." Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura laughed as Guy approached the wall of bins, absently putting Scion over his shoulder.

"Guy-sensei!"

"Hmm, no, not a pike, much too long. That one there is almost as tall as you Scion-chan!"

"Guy-sensei, put me down!"

"What? Oh gomen, Scion-chan. You're so light I didn't notice I was carrying you!" Guy put her down and went back to perusing the selection of weapons. _Good grief, only Guy could do something like that._ Scion's face was the brightest red he'd seen it yet. Scion guarded her dignity closely, and Kakashi imagined hers felt a little bruised. _Or more like run through a meat tenderizer. At least its not me this time._ Guy was pulling things out of bins and setting them on the counter.

"Tell me Scion-chan, is there any tool you used to carry with you or something you held alot?"

"Why do you ask?"

"If your new weapons have any similarity to familiar objects, you will handle them more confidantly."

"Oh, that does make sense. Let me think." Scion was quiet for several minutes. "A heavy scrub brush, a stirring spoon, a stick for pushing clothes through the wringer, a bucket...some really blunt kitchen knives. I think that's about it." Guy looked over his selection for a moment, and then handed Scion a brass knuckles. _I suppose that does resemble a scrub brush._ "My hand is too small for this." Scion said.

"You're right. Proprietor-sama, do you have any smaller knuckledusters, maybe one with studs?"

"Of course, the police academy didn't take all my smaller sizes this year. Did you want a pair?" Guy shook his head, and turned to Scion. "You need something to extend your reach a little, and minimize your size advantage."

Naruto sniggered. "Yeah, otherwise they'll just pick you up and walk away with you."

Scion sighed, sounding a little aggravated. "Naruto-san, could you please stop trying to pick a fight with me?" Kakashi saw Naruto looked a little hurt. "Sure, yeah."

"What do you think, Kakashi?" Guy asked him.

"What, oh, to lengethen her reach?"

"Hai."

Kakashi looked over the various sharp weapons laid out. "I don't think starting out with anything that has a blade is a good idea." Scion nodded. "What do you think of the batons over on that wall?" Kakashi asked her. Scion went through, looking for a comfortable weight and length.

"I want this one," she said firmly.

"Great," Naruto said. "Now that's taken care of, be ready to leave in an hour, okay?"

"You still want to leave tonight?" Scion asked Naruto.

"Yup, there's still a few good hours left today."

"It'll be dark soon," Scion stated.

"Yeah? You afraid of the dark or something?" Scion shrugged. _She is actually._ Kakashi thought, _I hope she does alright. _Kakashi packed quickly and headed for the gates after spending some time at the war memorial. He wasn't exactly late, not by his usual standards anyway, but Naruto was pacing impatiently.

"Scion-san is late." Naruto looked at him accusingly. "You've been setting her a bad example Kakasensei!"

"Hey, hey, I haven't got anything to do with it! She's probably eating or something!"

A few minutes later Scion came up the street at a run. "Gomen, gomen! My food took longer to cook than I thought!" She halted and bent over, breathing hard. She had a bundle in her arms in addition to a pack on her back.

"That's going to slow you down, Scion-san," Naruto objected.

"How fast can I go if I'm wobbly from not eating?" Scion responded breathlessly.

"That's _all_ food?"

"Hai."

"Well, come on then I guess. I was going to have us just walk tonight anyway." Whatever food Scion was carrying smelled delicious, and his stomach reminded him he had not had lunch or supper. They set off walking briskly with Scion eating what looked like a large egg roll. After about an hour Kakashi noticed Naruto sniffing the air somewhat forlornly.

"Are you hungry, Naruto-san?" Scion asked.

"Yeah, I kinda forgot to eat before we left." Naruto admitted.

"Do you want one of these?"

"Really?" Naruto asked.

"Of course! Here."

"Mpph, oh wow, this is good, what is it?"

"A tamale I guess. It's corn mush, bean paste and sasuage." _I forgot to eat too, do I get one? It's plenty dark, maybe I should just ask for one?_

"Hey Kakashi, you should try this!"

"Do you want one too?" Scion sounded shy.

"Yes please," he said and took the strange dumpling gratefully. It did taste good, though Kakashi thought it might have been bland without the sasuage. "Good travel food," he commented.

"Hai." Scion said. "You can have more if you want. I brought extra, I just wasn't sure when you'd be hungry."

"Well, if you're hungry we probably are," Naruto said.

Scion giggled. "I'm ALWAYS hungry Naruto-san."

"Can I have another one?"

"Yeah. Do you want a second one too, Kakashi-sama?"

"Hai, arigato."

"You must spend a lot on food then, if you are always hungry." Naruto commented.

"Yes, that's why I haven't bought my own refrigerator yet. Or very many clothes." _Tsunade really should increase Scion's training wage. At least she'll be paid for this mission though._

* * *

Scion started to look uneasy as the road gradually got darker. Soon she was on high alert, her nerves on edge, eyes darting around the brush by the sides of the road. "Scion-san, are you alright?" Naruto asked, concerned at her nervous behavior.

"It's dark," Scion said softly, "And my night vision is really bad."_ Dattebayo! Is she really afraid of the dark? This is ridiculous. She's not ready for any of this!_

"Do you have a small flashlight or something?"

"Hai."

"Go ahead and use it then." Scion unclipped a small cylinder hanging off her pack and switched it on. She relaxed immediately. _Yup_ Naruto thought,_ she's afraid of the dark. Good grief._ Eventually they made camp for the night.

"Scion," Naruto said irritably, after trying in vain to get to sleep with Scion's flashlight still on, "Turn that stupid thing off."

"Hai," Scion said tremulously.

"Come on, its not like you normally sleep with the light on, we're just outside, that's all." Scion shifted nervously, sitting up and looking around constantly. Just when Naruto was about to decide that her movement was more annoying than the light, when Kakashi got up and hunted in his pack for something. He pulled it out and twisted it. The stick started to glow, and he handed it to Scion.

"Arigato Kakashi-sama!" She laid down on her side, facing away from them and held the glowstick near her face. She stayed still and Naruto was finally able to get to sleep.

A/N: Next chapter we continue in Naruto's point of view!


	7. There's snake in my BED!

A/N: Sorry it's been so long. I was having so much fun writing later chapters, I forgot to post!

* * *

"Not a morning person, Scion-chan?" Kakasensei asked the bleary, slow moving Scion the next day. Naruto saw her shake herself.

"I'm cold." she mumbled. Naruto didn't think it was cold, just a little cool still because the sun hadn't been up long.

"Only one way to warm you up!" he said grinning.

"What?"

"Move!" he yelled, startling her. Naruto got behind her and starting prodding her forward. He kept poking her until they were going at a decent leisurely pace. "Don't stop!" he said when she started to slow.

"I'm warm, I'm warm, can we walk now?" she gasped.

"We **are** walking." Naruto informed her. Scion groaned. "No whining, or we'll start running." he threatened. _Of course, I'm going to make her run later anyway, but I'm not gonna tell her that! Guy obviously hasn't been been pushing her hard enough._

_

* * *

  
_

With Naruto's coaching, Scion literally learned the way ninja ran on the go, but balked at leaping through the trees. "You're crazy! I am not a bird or a monkey!" she protested, frustrating Naruto. _Ugg, is she afraid of heights or something too? _

"Get up here Scion-san." he ordered her. "The jungle up ahead is impenetrable on foot, and it'd take weeks to hack a way through or go around." Scion squinted up at him through her goggles.

"I don't know how to climb trees, and I doubt I can jump even halfway to the bottom branch."

"Just put chakra in your feet and walk up!" he said, exasperated.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, how do you think Kakashi and I got up here?"

"Gah, alright, but if I break my neck, Naruto-san, then you have to carry me!"

"A run-up should help," Kakashi advised Scion. He turned to Naruto. "It probably won't take too many tries, since she has such precise chakra control."

"I sure hope so!" Naruto crouched down impatiently to watch. Contrary to Kakashi's prediction however, half an hour later Scion still had not made it up any higher than five feet before falling off. "I don't get it." Naruto said, "you should be good at this."

"I wonder," Kakashi said cryptically. "Scion-chan, take a shoe and sock off." _What for?_ Naruto wondered as Scion complied, standing on the scuffed up moss.

"Now draw the chakra to your foot again. Scion looked up at them nonplussed. "What, more?"

"You have chakra in your feet right now?"

"Yeah, I have had all day, and I doubled it to try and get up this dumb tree."

"Why all day?"

"Blisters."

"Hmm, try doubling it again." Kakashi said and uncovered his Sharingan eye. Scion flinched slightly.

"What's up, Kakasensei?" Naruto asked. Kakashi didn't answer.

"Still nothing," he murmured. "Try putting as much chakra in your foot as you can for a few seconds." Scion's face scrunched up in concentration. "Enough," Kakashi said. "I think I see the problem here."

Scion slumped back on the ground, momentarily exhausted. "So what am I doing wrong?"

"Well, normally when you tell a beginner to put chakra into their feet, quite a lot leaks out and into whatever they are walking up. None of your chakra leaked out, so you didn't stick to the tree." Kakashi explained.

"Is that all? Naruto-san, could you give me more detailed instructions next time please?"

"Like its my fault your chakra doesn't leak!" Naruto grumbled.

Scion ran at the tree again, sticking this time. It was going well until she slowly began drooping backwards until she was hanging upside down against the trunk. "This is ridiculous!" Scion said frustratedly as she tried to pull herself upright.

"You got that right!" Naruto said, laughing helplessly. Scion let herself slide to the ground, and then climbed the tree with her hands and feet, as if she was using finger and toe holds. "Finally," Naruto said as she stood on the branch next to them. "Hang on a sec, if you weren't sticking to the tree before, how'd you get as far up as you did?" Scion shrugged.

"By having the right body type," Kakashi said, "People who are light and short don't have to fight gravity as much."

"HA!"

"Also," Kakashi continued. "Scion is fairly strong for her size already."

"Not much stamina, though." Naruto commented. Scion glared at him through her goggles.

* * *

Scion viewed the gap between the nearest branch and the one she was on with trepidation. _I'm pretty sure I can jump that far, but I'm not sure I can land and keep my balance._ "This is insane!" she added out loud and jumped. "Yeaah!" She nearly fell but stuck to the branch at the last second, and pulled herself up to crouch on it.

"That was awful," Naruto said bluntly.

"Do I look like a stupid monkey?" she replied crossly. Naruto suddenly grinned.

"No, you look more like a stupid pink tree frog." _ A pink tree frog!? Actually, I kinda do! _

"And you look like a stupid washed out fox!"

"Nani, dattebayo?"

"I said you're a dumb blond fox!" Scion clarified, teasing a gapping Naruto. She straightened up and decided on an alternative course of action. She ran the length of the branch until it came near a branch, lightly jumped across, landed crouched to wait out the swaying, and then ran up to the trunk, and back out again on the branch headed the right direction. With the fear of falling virtually eliminated by the new technique, she was limited by her body's actual abilities rather than by her mind's limit. Naruto finally recovered from his astonishment and hurried out to lead the way.

Kakashi-sama smiled encouragingly at her. "If you go a little faster, you'll find you can jump farther and run along branches less."

Scion nodded. "I'm getting a feel for it." She struggled to keep up the pace Naruto was setting, burning through her small chakra reserve quickly. Eventually she resorted to stopping to forage and eat, stuffing whatever she could into her pack.

"Good grief Scion, you eat at least as much as Choji, and he's way bigger than you!"

Scion sighed, feeling aggravated by Naruto's comment. "His clan specializes in converting food and fat into chakra, don't they?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, what is it you think that I'm doing?"

"Eh, but you can't need that much!" Scion saved some of the fruit aside, and jumped out of the fruit tree back behind Naruto.

"You have got to be kidding me! I couldn't do any of this for long without burning a ton of chakra."

"Then why are you training at this level already, if you are still so weak?"

_Weak!? _Scion shrugged, feeling irritable. "Ask Hokage-sama."

* * *

Scion was glad when Naruto set a slower pace for a while, walking backwards on the road they had found headed the right direction. "Hey, Scion-san, what do you do when you aren't training?"

"Eh?" Scion looked blankly at him for a second. "Sleep?"

"Besides that." Scion opened her mouth to answer. "And don't say eat!" Scion blushed and Kakashi laughed.

"Well, its not like I have alot of free time, Naruto-san!"

"Okay, so you're working hard, but you must do something for fun!"

"Well I really have to ask ahead of time if I want to do something besides train or study, and then usually somebody has to watch me." Naruto looked appalled.

"Granny-chan is still having you watched all the time?"

"Not all the time, just when I want to do something different than usual. I think it's really somebody else who wants it done." Scion explained.

"So no fun, all this time?"

"Nah, I love to swim, so I go for training a lot."

Naruto turned back around and sped up a little. "What, just doing laps in the pool?"

"Mostly, but I go to the lake sometimes, and I swam in the river once."

"Don't you get cold?"

"Not usually," Scion panted slightly with the effort of keeping up. "I go with Guy-sama and we usually run the whole way there and back. At least I thought it was running."

"That does sound like Guy," Kakashi-sama commented from beside her. "Yeah, he and Fuzzy Eyebrows are pretty much insane."

Scion laughed at the nickname. "I noticed," she said. "Seriously, it's like they're bipolar, but they got stuck on manic permanently!"

* * *

"Oi, what was that?" Naruto stopped suddenly and swung down around the branch to face behind him.

"Yiiiiieeh!" Scion shrieked, aborting her leap to the branch Naruto was on, and narrowly avoiding falling to the ground, clinging to her current branch with all four limbs. "Get out of the way or something when you're gonna stop like that!"

"You look ridiculous. Again." Naruto commented calmly. "Kakashi, did you hear that strange sound just now?"

"I did." Kakashi said enigmatically. _Guess he wants me to figure it out on my own._

"You didn't hear anything did you, Scion?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe, what did it sound like?" Scion's facial expression was unreadable.

"I don't know, maybe kinda like grrrrroooorrrmmmmbpbppgrrroo"

"Yeah, I heard it alright." Scion said dryly.

"So, any idea what it was?," Naruto asked, slightly annoyed.

Scion suddenly exploded. "Well, I don't know, Naruto-san, what kind of sound do you think a person's stomach usually makes when the last thing they had to eat was some raw onions four hours ago?"

"But you've been eating all day! Why'd you stop foraging?"

"The same reason I've been jumping through trees again, baka, there's a swamp down there! Even if it wasn't a swamp, you've been going way too fast!"

"Okay then," Naruto said reluctantly. "We'll stop and eat."

* * *

He and Kakashi watched incredulously as Scion strapped a camp burner to a tree branch and boiled filtered swamp water, then dumped dried noodle balls in it. "What?" she asked.

"You're cooking." Naruto said.

"Well, yeah, you said I had time."

"You're cooking up in a tree."

"So?"

"It's weird! I thought you were going to find a patch of drier ground or something!"

"And get all muddy when I don't have too? No thanks."

Naruto shook his head and ate his ration bars. He turned to talk to Kakashi just in time to see him pulling his mask back up. "Argh! I swear, if he dies or passes out the first thing I'm gonna do is find out what's under that stinking mask," he muttered to himself. "I mean, he even sleeps in it."

"Naruto-san," Scion interrupted his mumblings.

"What?"

"Are we going to leave the swamp before dark?"

"Probably not, why?"

"How will we camp then?"

_Opps, I hadn't thought about it actually. We can't just keep going unless the moon's really bright, with Scion afraid and new to tree jumping. On the other hand, we'd need a much bigger dry spot than I've seen yet._ "I don't know," he admitted. "What do you think Kakasensei?"

"Oh, just turn our bed rolls into hammocks, I've done it before."

"Great idea Kakashi!" Naruto said enthusiasticaly. Scion however looked dubious.

* * *

Kakashi showed Naruto and Scion how to hang their bedrolls up like hammocks in a big willow. Naurto watched in disgust as Scion spat in her hand repeatedly and rubbed the branch she was going to use with the spit. He was alarmed when she came over towards him, hand full of spit.

"Gross! What're you doing!? Get away!"

"It's for snakes." Scion said.

"Is that some kind of freaky demon superstition or something!?" Scion just looked at him. "Go someplace else with that!"

"Fine." Scion snapped.

"And Kakashi doesn't want any either!" Naruto added as Scion walked huffily away along the branch below hers and climbed into her hammock. She shook up the glow stick Kakashi had given her and appeared to go to sleep.

He was woken the next morning by a loud noise. *THAWK* *THAWP* *SMACK* He opened his eyes to see Scion holding a snake by the tail and beating its brains out on the tree trunk.

"Hold still," she advised him. "You've still got one more."

"One more what!?"

"Snake in your bed." she said calmly.

"Reh!?" he yelped.

"Hold still!" Scion cut the dead snakes head off and pinned it to the tree with a kunai, next to three others. Scion came over to him and stuck her hand up his sleeve. "Phooey, it's just a little one." She pulled it out and tossed it to the ground.

"Is it safe to move now?" he asked anxiously.

"Yeah."

Naruto rubbed his face and got out onto the branch. Kakashi was across from him, packing his bedroll up. "Did you get a snake in your hammock too?"

Kakashi nodded. "Just the one. I took care of it myself."

"Wait, then those four big ones....?" Naruto shuddered.

"Yup, all yours Naruto, plus the little one." Scion looked smug.

"Let me guess, and no snakes in yours." Naruto groaned.

"Exactly." Scion smirked at him, and started cutting one of the big snakes open.

"What're you doing?! It's dead already, just drop it in the swamp!"

Scion looked at him quizzically. "But it's edible."

"Who cares!? Toss it already! There's no way we're that desperate for food!"

"What's desperate got to do with it? This kind of snake is good! I'm going to cook some for breakfast."

"It's your stomach, I guess." Naruto said reluctantly. He watched as she roasted it like fish on a stick and picked the meat off the skin. Kakashi took some and went higher up the tree on his own, where Naruto couldn't see him. His stomach growled loudly, and Kakashi laughed at him.

"Just eat it Naruto-san." Scion said. "It's way better than those stupid ration bars and food pills."

"But..but, it has scales!"

"So does fish."

_It does smell good, and those tamale things Scion made were good..._"Okay, I guess it would be dumb not to eat it when I've eaten bugs." Scion handed him several skewer sticks of the meat, then turned the burner off to let it cool. "So, why did those snakes climb in with us anyway?" Naruto asked.

"Because they were cold." Scion explained.

"And the spit? What was with that?"

"It's a warning, basically its like a sign that says: I eat snakes your size for breakfast."

Naruto laughed. "Heh, I guess you do!"

"Yeah." Scion grinned and finished cleaning the dead snakes, then carefully wrapped them up into her pack.

"Snake for lunch too." Naruto commented, finishing his share of the cooked meat.

"So long as we stop to cook it. I hope I brought enough supplies for the trip back too."

"It'll be fine, lets get going."

* * *

A/N: Next time in Kakashi's point of view! Review? Please?


	8. Haircut

"Gnung," Scion groaned. "This had better be the right place Naruto-san, I'm freezing!

"Hey, hey, its not my fault its snowing!"

"No, but it's your fault we went up the wrong side of the stinking mountain!"

Privately, Kakashi agreed with Scion. Fortunately it was the right village they had just reached, and even better, they were invited to use the indoor baths before they were shown to the headman. Kakashi had been feeling drowsy, but the shock of the freezing air on his wet hair cleared his head. He noted signs of the vandalism as they passed through the village. Also, either the village was unusually religious, or the sacred chains, paper chains, paper charms, candles, and icons were celebrating some obscure local holiday. As they came around a corner, Kakashi smelled wet ash, and saw the ruins of a burned building. "Excuse me," he asked their guide, "what was that building?"

"The village shrine." was the sour reply, "The vandals burned it three nights ago." _Sounds like things are escalating._

The town hall was so thickly covered with charms and chains that the wood was hardly visible. As it turned out, the now homeless priest had relocated himself to the townhall, covered it in charms, and barricaded himself in a nest of protective mystic paraphernalia. _Either he's a nutjob, or something a little odd is going on._ Naruto and Scion both staggered as they stepped across a line of charms on the floor. "Huh, dizzy just now." Naruto muttered.

Scion, on the other hand, glared at the priest venomously, who flinched and whimpered, "Oh no! More demons!" _ Say what?!_ Kakashi thought.

The briefing itself was fairly routine, with the exception of the priest in his corner shouting that no, it wasn't the teenagers, no, it wasn't drunks, it wasn't the illegal sake union, it wasn't the women's rights club, it was DEMONS. After all, hadn't the problem started when he came to take over from the old priest who had died, and he, specially trained to detect demons, realized how horrifically the village was infested with demons, and set about a campaign to eradicate the mild but numerous demonic auras? Kakashi shook his head. _No wonder they didn't give many details when they requested the mission. Tsunade would have turned it down!_

"Hehe," Naruto chuckled as the went back to the building with the baths, the village having generously reserved three rooms for them. "Boy, that priest is cracked." Naruto continued.

Scion sat down next to the table of food. "Too bad this isn't going to take long," she said, digging into the food enthusiastically.

"Oh, how's that?" Naruto asked through his mouthful of rice, stuffing his face just like Scion. _Yes, how is that, and why don't you two have any table manners?_

"Well, that nasty priest may be cracked, but he's also right." _Really?_

"Aw, come on, he's just paranoid, and obsessed with demons." Kakashi took advantage of the poor lighting to take his mask down and eat.

"No, really, this place is loaded with demons!"

"Right," Naruto said sarcastically as he mowed down a plate of hard boiled eggs, "and you just smelled them on the way in."

Kakashi shook his head despairingly as Scion nearly choked on her overlarge mouthful of rice. _When we get back, I'm going to tell Tsunade these two need etiquette lessons._

"Well, duh," Scion said, tapping her nose with a chopstick. "How did you think I knew you were _that _Naruto?"

"I'm not convinced." Naruto argued through bamboo sprouts.

"Kakashi-sama, you know how I said you smelled like dog?"

"Yes," Kakashi said, whipping his mask up just before Naruto looked over. He smirked to himself as Naruto muttered. "Aww man, too late _again_."

"Do you by any chance have a summoning contract?" _She smelled that!?_

"Yes, actually, with a tracking dog team."

"Summoning beasts aren't demons!"

"Certainly not in the usual sense." Kakashi commented.

"They are spirit demons from another plane, and can't manifest in in solid physical form under normal circumstances." Scion explained. "That's why you have to offer blood and chakra in the summoning."

"So why do you know that anyway?" Naruto asked. Scion went very quiet and still, and Kakashi sharpened his attention on Scion further.

"Becuase that's the kind of demon Orochimaru mostly used in his experiments, and the reason the whites of my eyes are black."

"So all those people's powers come from some kind of contract with a demon?"

"Hardly." Scion snorted. "Would you willingly enter into a contract that involved being permanently ripped out of your world into hell, eaten, torn to shreds, stewed and digested in Orochimaru's monster stomach for years, combined with other people and animals, even plants, and then injected into some humans body, to be a slave to their passions for the rest of their short violent life, when you would also die and have to wait maybe millenia in the afterlife before your friends and family joined you?"

"Umm..." Naruto said, slack jawed with horror, "No!" _I never thought of it from the demon's perspective, it makes it seem even more monstrous than before, _Kakashi thought.

"Orochimaru used a perverted version of a spell for summoning un-embodied spirits for luck and good crops, that kind of thing. They'd show up to help or interfere, and he ate them."

"So was it like Sasuke, he bit you and injected the demon junk into you?"

Scion nodded. "Only that was before he'd perfected it, and the casualty rate was high."

"How high?" Kakashi asked sharply. _Clearly Scion knows more than we originally thought._

"About 98 percent for most experiments, it was lower with the one I was in, I guess, but that was only because there were only 25 of us."

"So how many survivors were there?" Naruto asked.

"One."

"Just you?! That's awful! Was it because you can heal yourself?"

Scion shook her head. "We all could heal ourselves, or prevent damage from happening. All of us had something that made us different, bloodline limits mostly. I guess Orichimaru thought it would improve the success rate of the method he was using at the time. It didn't really, and after a while he changed methods, basically from not digesting the demons, and only injecting all of one, to do doing it the way I said before."

"So that was when the whites of your eye's turned black." Kakashi said.

Scion nodded. "Hai, everyone's changed color, mostly black, but some had red and there was at least one blue I think. None of them lived very long afterwards."

"What killed them?" Kakashi asked. _Since she's talking, I better get all the information I can. Plus, understanding Scion-chan better would really help her and Naruto's teamwork._

"Two of them literally exploded because they had strong chakra natures, and the demons they got were opposing elementals." Kakashi saw Naruto flinched and put his food down. Scion on the other hand continued to eat steadily. _I have never seen anybody digest food that fast. _"What about the rest?" Kakashi asked Scion. "Suicide mostly, I guess. Some of them went berserk and killed each other, and some got killed attacking the guards or Orochimaru as revenge for the possession."

"What about you?" Kakashi asked casually, hoping the topic wasn't too touchy. Scion shrugged. "I was fine, I mean, freaky things happened whenever I would be especially afraid after that. It was awful, but there wasn't any chakra opposition, no voice in my head, no blood lust or anything like that. All I can figure is, the snake demon I got is either really laid back or unaware anything has happened to it."

"So basically, your demon's dumb?" Naruto asked.

"Or whatever. I don't really care as long as it leaves me alone, and I don't flip out and change too often, and I don't do much damage when I do."

"Heh, don't worry, we'll just disarm you and tie you to a tree again", Naruto said with a grin.

Scion smiled. "Just make sure you bring some really big fingernail clippers!"

"Eh?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi had heard already. "I got mad and took a swipe at Guy-sama last week and this happened." Scion flicked her hand and her pink fingernails transformed into thick inch long claws.

"How sharp are those by the way?" Kakashi asked. Scion grinned mischievously and flashed her hand above Naruto's head. A lock of blonde hair fell into the empty pitcher of milk.

"Nani, dattebayo?" Kakashi laughed. "Nooo! She cut my hair!" Naruto rolled on the floor in frustration. "Kakashi, do something!"

"So you can do it whenever you want?" Kakashi asked.

Scion nodded, serious. "Of course, the problem is not meaning to do it. These claws can kill, now that I remember, in fact, they HAVE."

"Nani?" Naruto shrieked, sitting up. "Put them away!" The startled Scion just looked at him and the reckless Naruto tackled her.

"Naruto!" Kakashi shouted too late. Scion hissed and kicked Naruto in the stomach, flinging him against the sliding door. She grabbed Naruto by the collar, her claws ripping the fabric. "Don't ever do anything like that again," she snarled into Naruto's face.

"Why not? What's your problem anyways?" _"Well that was dumb", _Kakashi thought as the enraged and faintly green Scion dragged Naruto outside.

"Lemme go!" Naruto collared. Kakashi followed. _"Better keep an eye on them." _He arrived outside in time to see Scion kick Naruto in the backside, literally punting him head first into a pile of dirty snow. Kakashi was impressed. Naruto sat up in the slushy mess and Scion loomed threateningly over him. "I haven't survived 21 years of torture, experiments, and imprisonment just to take disrespect from a twerp like you, Naruto!"

"I'll respect you when you respect me!" Naruto shot back, dusting himself off.

Scion deflated somewhat. "Deal." She said simply.


End file.
